Friday's Run

Well, today was not a good day running for me. I was supposed to do 4x1600 repeats at 6:34 with 800 meter jogs in between. I felt fine when I left and ran about three warm up miles before I started the repeats. I wanted to run a total of 10 miles, so the plan was to sandwich the repeats around some nice, easy paced running.

As I hit the track, it was a struggle to hit the 1:38 mark for each lap. I came pretty close and hit the first mile in 6:37. As I started my 800 meter jog, my thighs were in bad shape. You may recall they were quite sore earlier in the week. I though, okay, I''ll jog it off and hit this next 1600 and keep it going. No such luck, my friends. I finished my 800m jog and started my second 1600. I had no juice in my legs and I'd get a pretty unpleasant feeling in my thighs with every foot-ground impact. I decided to pull back after one lap and just get the miles in rather than doing something really stupid and getting hurt.

I am no doctor, but I don't think the muscles in my thighs have made enough of a recovery from earlier in the week following the 10K. I am hoping they will be fine for Sunday's 18 Miler.
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That was a great argument for not running with an Ipod following the previous post, Matt. That's probably the most intelligent reasoning for not wanting to run with an Ipod that I've ever heard. I certainly respect your opinion. I also appreciate that fact that it doesn't bother you if someone wants to run with an MP3 player. I don't fault anyone for not wating to wear one, I just think each runner should what he/she feels works for them.

I do listen to music at a much lower volume in the Chicago Marathon than I do in training. I love the crowd and like to hear people cheering on all of the runners. The people of Chicago who come out and support the runners are awesome. I do like to crank it up a little bit in the less crowded stretches of the course when it's you and only you. And a few hundred others runners, of course. And at the end of the race, I love to play the songs that get me fired up, for a little extra boost. Thre are a few marathons where I have posted an awesome last couple miles or kilometers that I attribute to a few things: the music, intestinal fortitude, and visualizing that last stretch of the course in my head for the previous few months.
It's not quite Pavlovian where that song comes on and all of a sudden I start running a minute faster per mile, but I think anything that reinforces positive energy and feelings is a bonus.